Tag Archive for 'web site'

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Web Site Statistics – A New Twist

Published on September 17, 2009 in Unusual and Web. 0 Comments Tags: ecommerce, financial, investment, Marketing, private equity, report, sales information, Web, web design, web site, web statistics, web tracking, web traffic.

Putting privileged information on your web site, probably in a password-protected area, has advantages beyond treating special clients in a special way. Because each password is linked to a particular person or company, you can track very closely statistics like:

- how often did each one visit the site (if at all)?
- what files did they download? (and so what are the hot topics for that individual?)
- what pages did they visit?

These kind of statistics can be interesting when trying to assess how and why shareholders, investors, journalists and others behave as they do, and can be important for your sales and management processes, as well as providing valuable input to a sales team or marketing campaign.

Building Web Traffic and Business Too

Published on September 16, 2009 in PR. 0 Comments Tags: animation, key individuals, news, password protection, privileged information, up to date, Web, web design, web site.

Once upon a time, everyone loved Flash animations, and the thing to have was a big animated sequence on your home page to entice everyone into your site. (We did a wonderful one for Mezzanine Management – a floating and revolving logo on a black background – but it took a long time to load!)

Nowadays, businesses need to know that if someone just visits the home page of your site, there will be something there that tells them very quickly what the company does, who its products or services are designed for, and why someone in their target market might want to read further.

These days, its all about targetting and measurement, and if possible, having your clients and potential clients come back time after time, maybe by giving privileged access to certain information for key individuals.

They won’t do that if your web content is flat and uninteresting; if your news section hasn’t been updated for six months; if your contact information is out of date. Yet all of these things still happen.

A web site should be like a magazine, not an inscription on a stone. The content should change regularly, and be interesting too. Why should I read this page? Should be the first question you ask about your site. Why? Because that’s what every visitor will be asking too. (Inflexion – see the post below – is a great example).

Web Design – Keep Your Options Open

Published on September 15, 2009 in Web. 0 Comments Tags: content management, modX, open source, php, SQL, Web, web commerce, web design, web site.

Inflexion Homepage

Wild West is an unashamed fan of open source software, particularly when it comes to web design and to content management. Why? Because it allows the owners of a web site to have the maximum in terms of transparency and portability too.

Once upon a time the whole software industry was based on a ‘lock-in’ factor – choose one technology and you were effectively choosing a technology for a very long time ahead. And that base technology impacted, and sometimes heavily restricted, all your other choices too.

Now, with open source, that doesn’t need to happen. MySQL, PHP and other open source web enabling technologies are often better than proprietary systems, and allow greater interactivity with other systems – something which is often important in this age of web commerce.

Most importantly, open source technologies leave choices open and unlock the opportunity for best fit products improved by competition in the market.

Working with PR Agencies

Published on September 8, 2009 in Brand and identity, Design, Marketing and PR. 0 Comments Tags: Bite PR, branding, Brands2Life, brochure, Design for PR, FD, Hill and Knowlton, Lawson Clarke, logo, microsite, PR Agency, report, web site.

Our identity for Brands2Life's Making BrITain Great Again initiative

Some PR agencies have in-house design resources, others don’t. In both situations, Wild West has been able to add value and effectiveness to PR campaigns, by providing specialist design, marketing or programming skills.

In-house resources are sometimes over-stretched. Sometimes, there needs to be a fresh injection of creativity or experience in a specific area.

Wild West understands the needs and demands placed on PR agencies and over the years we’ve worked in conjunction with some of the leading agencies in their field. Hill and Knowlton, FD, Brands2Life, Lawson Clarke, and Bite among them, helping them to create all kinds of materials to aid publicity – reports and proposals, product and corporate brochures, display material, props and photo backdrops, logos and websites.

Most recently, we worked on the campaign that Brands2Life are running on behalf of their high tech client, Micro Focus. Making Britain Great Again (www.makingbritaingreat.co.uk) is aimed at creating many more high-tech, high-value jobs for Britain.

If you work in high-tech and you have a view on the future prosperity of Britain, why not visit the site and leave a comment?

Stock Spirits – Partying Around the World

Published on August 26, 2009 in Corporate, International and Web. 0 Comments Tags: blue lagoon, central Europe, cocktail, Czysta, Fernet Stock, limonce, Stock Spirits, vodka, vodka martini, Web, web design, web site.

Boznia-Herzegovina and Croatia will be getting their own Stock Spirits web sites later this year, reflecting how Stock sales (of brands like Czysta de Luxe vodka, Fernet Stock and Limonce) are expanding throughout central and eastern Europe. Wild West will be building these multi-language sites with the same stylish design as www.stockspiritsgroup.com and national sites for the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The corporate site for Stock Spirits also includes recipes for some exciting cocktails, from the classic Vodka Martini through to an exotic Blue Lagoon. To view them, just click on the button in the illustration panel to the left of each page.

SQL Injections – Is Your Site Safe?

Published on August 24, 2009 in Web. 0 Comments Tags: banking, database, financial, investment, password, private equity, Secerno, SQL Injection, web site.

We were alerted to the potential compromise of database information via the web when we started working with Secerno, a company whose business is database security. Basically, if there is the potential for user interaction through your site, then there is also a high risk that a hacker might ‘inject’ his own SQL code and download information that you would wish to keep safe – like passwords, clients, products.

If you are password-protecting databased information, (making it available via a closed user area perhaps) you may have locked the doors, but you will need to check that the windows are closed too. Damage from SQL injection is just one of the issues that Secerno helps protect against.

Wild West clients too, (including our various banking, investment and private equity clients) are safeguarded against this very prevalent form of attack. Read more here: http://www.secerno.com/?pg=SQL-Injection

Worse Things Happen at Sea

Published on August 18, 2009 in Corporate and Design. 0 Comments Tags: Charles Taylor, IGP&I, logo, marine insurance, P&I Clubs, shipping, The Standard Club, web design, web site.

Ships are big things. Giant, slow-moving, difficult to stop once they have momentum and prone to all kinds of forces that wind and wave can throw at them. And no matter how technology advances (GPS for example), ships can be subject to, and the cause of, all kinds of problems – piracy, pollution, dock damage, fire, cargo damage, crew accidents among them – and all those problems have to be insured and regulated.

The International Group of P&I Clubs is the trade body that works with the insurers of all these risks to ensure that, no matter what the problem (an oil spill in the arctic for example), the problems are dealt with and trade continues. The P&I clubs themselves (P&I is protection and indemnity, and the organisations are called ‘clubs’ because they are mutuals, working on behalf of their members, like old-fashioned building societies) insure over 90% of the world’s shipping, and work ceaselessly to try to prevent accidents and hence reduce claims.

We were introduced to the International Group by our friends at Charles Taylor and Co, who manage one of the most successful of the world’s P&I clubs, the Standard Club (www.standard-club.com). Our project was to redesign the International Group logo and then to design and implement a new web site for this very influential trade body, which includes links to all the members, a self-administered news service and even a page with links to the European Union portal.

See for yourself at www.igpandi.org

Impressive List of Supporters

Published on August 10, 2009 in Design, Marketing, PR and Web. 0 Comments Tags: Brands2Life, IT, IT jobs, MicroFocus, PR, web design, web site.

The Making BrITain Great campaign, initiated by MicroFocus and their PR agency Brands2Life has attracted an impressive list of supporters for their technology and jobs manifesto, published on July 21. If you’re involved in technology, you can leave a comment or add your name to the supporters list at their web site www.makingBrITaingreat.co.uk Wild West designed the manifesto and the accompanying web pages.

Carrington Guide to Beat the Recession

Published on August 7, 2009 in Web. 1 Comment Tags: accountancy, Carrington, consultants, logo, self-employed, tax, web site.

Wild West clients Carrington Accountancy have posted a free guide to beating the recession on their web site. Go to www.carringtonaccountancy.com for your copy.

The Cocktail Hour

Published on July 17, 2009 in Corporate, Design and Web. 0 Comments Tags: appletini, cocktail, cocktail recipe, Stock Spirits, web site.

Stock's Appletini recipe

Part of Wild West’s assignment for Stock Spirits was to develop a set of web sites for the company – starting with a corporate site and then moving to other operating companies and areas. A key feature of the Stock Spirits corporate web site, (which you can find at the following URL – www.stockspiritsgroup.com) is of course, the wonderful photography of the drinks which Wild West sourced to suit the bright and lively concept. Another benefit is that if you click the ‘recipe’ button down in the bottom right corner, you get the cocktail recipe which matches the photo, in a pop up window. Here: the perfect appletini!